After more than two years of growing and three weeks of planning, 3,800 piping hot peppers hit the market in Great Falls on Friday.

Students from Paris Gibson Alternative High School unveiled their product, "Loki's Ghost Hot Pepper Shake," in a fiery fashion during a student assembly on Friday. Science and social studies teachers Jonathan Logan and Vince Kornick donned firefighter gear and walked around the room carrying little drop samples of the spicy substance students were not only responsible for making but also marketing. They have 200 bottles of the flakes for sale.

It should come as no surprise Davalos was in charge of marketing the bottles of pepper flakes made from 12 of the hottest peppers on the planet, which were grown at the school by Logan's biology students.

Davalos helped with the logo design as well as the "Guerrilla Marketing" campaign, which placed stickers and posters around the school to build hype for the product reveal without giving away too many details.

Kornick said Davalos ran with the project and designed a quick response code on the posters and stickers that students could scan with their phones. It then directed them to a website where there was a countdown clock, but it didn't reveal much else.

"You've got to hand it to the kids, they kept it under wrap," Kornick said.

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(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/KRISTEN CATES)

Logan said the students went through all of the peppers they are growing in their indoor growing rooms. The school also recently installed a hydroponics growing system. They already have 16 more plants growing.

"Once this takes off, we've got to keep it going," Logan said.

The best part about this cross-curricular project is the involvement from the kids. Logan said he called the class "gardening," but it was really a biology class/credit for students. Kornick said the kids doing the marketing work not only had to think about how to sell it, but also had to work on how to get the packaging and labeling approved by the state.

The investment seems to have paid off.

"It was really open," Davalos said. "It was a very interesting learning experience."

The jars of flakes are for sale for $15 and proceeds go right back into the students' projects.

Loki's Ghost is a named combined from the Norse god for fire and mischief (Loki) and the ghost peppers that make up part of the concoction, said senior Al O'Day, who dressed up as Loki for the product launch.

O'Day was in the class when last year when they made their first prototype and has enjoyed seeing it through to this stage.

"I like it a lot better than in-class learning," he said.

He said the name for the product created by a group of approximately 50 "alternative" students over the last two years is fitting.

"It's pretty perfect for us," O'Day said, "We are who we are and we make a hot pepper."